Happy Hogan asks Iron Man to speak to Tony Stark about helping him (Happy) get a date with Pepper. When Tony tries to suggest the idea to Pepper, she jumps to the conclusion that Stark wants to go on a date with her. Happy sees the two of them and leaves before Tony can rectify the situation, so he reluctantly agrees to take her on the date.

They visit Coney Island (because Tony secretly doesn't want to go to a place too romantic) and walk by a marskman being sneered at by his audience. Shortly after, a pinwheel ride loses control, endangering the lives of the people on it and bystanders alike. Tony excuses himself, claiming to have to make a call to the factory, and suits up as Iron Man. He puts the full power of his armor against the flying pinwheel, and stops it. From his stand, the marksman observes with jealousy how Iron Man is getting everybody's attention.

Once he returns to his house, the archer uses his basement workshop to make a costume and customized arrow tips. He becomes the costumed adventurer Hawkeye, so people would "never again (...) sneer at his performance." After leaving the workshop, Hawkeye uses one of his trick arrows to pull himself to a rooftop, from where he witnesses a thief stealing jewelry. He uses an arrow to immobilize the thief to a post and then ropes down to the street. However, the thief managed to escape while Hawkeye was going down, and left his loot. When he's inspecting the stolen goods, Hawkeye is spotted by two police officers, who mistake him for the thug's partner. Hawkeye decides to flee, thinking the cops would never believe he's innocent. While running, Hawkeye is stopped by a car, whose driver lets Hawkeye get in to escape. The driver is none other than the mysterious villainess Black Widow, who captivates Hawkeye with her beauty.

As they drive to Black Widow's hideout, she praises Hawkeye and tells him he might be the ally she needs. They arrive at the hideout, and Black Widow leads Hawkeye through a lavishly furnished estate until they reach a stairway leading them to a laboratory. Hawkeye sees he could use the equipment to build stronger arrowheads, and asks the Widow what does she need. Now that he's captivated by her charm, Hawkeye is easily convinced to go up against Iron Man.

Meanwhile, in Stark Industries, Iron Man is changing back to his civilian identity, regretting his behavior towards Pepper, and decides to step up his game and take her to a glamorous dinner. However, when he arrives to his office, Happy is asking Pepper for a date, and she accepts in order to show Tony that "he's not the only fish in the sea," and out of resentment for their date at Coney Island.

A short distance away from Stark's factory, Hawkeye uses a suction cup arrow to jump into a van approaching the plant. Once the truck passes through the guarded entrance gate, Hawkeye gets off and pulls himself to a rooftop. He starts using explosive arrows to catch Iron Man's attention. When the Golden Avenger confronts Hawkeye, the archer uses arrows tipped with a chemical that quickly rusts Iron Man's armor upon impact. The hero is forced to flee, leaving behind the rusted parts. By the time Hawkeye reaches the spot where Iron Man had been, he only finds the discarded armor parts and decides to steal them in order to learn the secrets of Stark's tech.

In another section of the plant, Stark gets his hands on an emergency armor duplicate, but he's missing its right boot, and can't go on without being exposed. He finally finds the boot, which had been left in another area because it needed replating. Now that he's fully armored, Iron Man goes after Hawkeye, having heard a car speed away a few minutes ago. He sees only one car on the road, racing away from the factory and heavily damages it with an intensified blast from his power ray. Hawkeye is forced to exit the trashed vehicle, and he has ran out of rusting-fluid arrow to confront his opponent.

Iron Man easily repels Hawkeye's attacks with a magnetic repulsor ray, and he tries to power dive onto his enemy at top speed. However, Hawkeye uses an arrow that expands into nylon rope strands and tangles Iron Man up. After breaking free, Iron Man follows Hawkeye to the piers at the edge of LaGuardia airport, and hits the pier Hawkeye is standing on with such strength it breaks, ultimately causing Hawkeye to fall into the water. The Golden Avenger retrieves his enemy and leaves him lying on the floor. He turns his back on Hawkeye in order to retrieve the armor parts from Hawkeye's car. Hawekye was faking being unconscious and fires his most powerful explosive arrow, a "demolition blast warhead" at Iron Man. To Hawkeye's surprise, the demolition blast ricochets off Iron Man's armor, while still knocking the Golden Avenger down, and it hits Black Widow, who was on the pier, waiting for Hawkeye. Fearing that his loved one would be fatally injured, Hawkeye carries Black Widow to the boat and they escape. Iron Man recovers from the staggering blow and decides to give chase. However, the fog gets thick and he remembers he's at the edge of LaGuardia airport, and decides to not go airborne, as it would be a menace to the planes taking off and landing. Also beause of the fog, Iron Man can't recognize the Black Widow as the woman ally of Hawkeye.

After returning to his factory, Iron Man changes back to his civilian identity of Tony Stark, and decides to trudge through the beach outside his factory because he had nothing to do but wait for morning.

Rajaks Space Pirates plan to attack a rich planet, thinking the Watcher will not interfere. They are thwarted because they unknowingly targeted the Watcher's home world, the one planet that he can interfere with. The Watcher dispatched them to another world.

Notes

Story II of this issue is a one page text piece: The Runner (concludes next issue).